Speaking of medical insurance ...

All I can say is--OUCH!  

I'm glad you have the good insurance. 

Those are the digits that always make europeans dizzy and gasping, even more than the costs of studies in the US.
I don't know if going to a doctor is a big economical question to an average worker in any (west)european country.

I honestly think that also a cleaning lady deserves a heart transplant, and also her children have the right to become surgeons if they're smart enough.

A doctor who has not been sued multiple times is a rarity in the medical biz..... or they are doing lab work.

I'm not sure I'd want to see a doctor that had been sued any time, let alone multiple times.
 
Is this a generalization or an accurate reflection of the quality of US doctors?  Over here it's so rare for a doctor to get sued that it makes headline news...  (They usually deserve it)

Karyn,

over here in the US, people will sue for anything they think will get them some money.... we call it the insurance lottery. 

Doctors get sued all the time, mostly for the small inconsequential things. Most of the suits get settled or thrown out but they must be defended and that takes lawyers and money.  Some doctors screw up and leave towels and instruments inside after the operations but that is pretty rare, although I do know of it happening.

Just like driving.... if you have even a small accident, you are very likely to be sued. Even if the insurance co offers to pay all the costs. I had a small fender bender on vacation a number of years ago..... no one was injured. The accident occurred on a Monday. Three days later, the passenger in the other car was taken to the hospital complaining he was dizzy. They did a cat scan. No problems... Then they noticed he had an eye infection (pus coming from his eye) also it was discovered that he had infected toes, removed a few nails surgically and debrided the skin on a seriously infected leg sore. Administered some antibiotics and kept him in the hospital for several days to observe the wounds and be sure they were healing.....

Even though it was totally unrelated to the accident, he sued me, as did the driver when she found out he was suing. My insurance company decided it was cheaper to pay than fight it in court. She, the driver, not hurt in any way (you should have seen her running around the accident scene) won $8500 and the man with the other unrelated medical issues won $56,000 even though his problems were totally unrelated to the accident.

I was livid that the insurance co paid this amount to these fakers..... In a conversation with my lawyer after the fact, he put it to me this way.... He asked me if I would rather have seen him wheeled into a courtroom in a wheelchair with his leg in a medical wrap and a patch over his eye with gauze, to ask a jury to compensate him for his injuries.....

Same thing happens with doctors. A friend of mine is a doctor and he tells me this sort of thing goes on all the time....any wonder the costs to the people are sky high?

A guy I used to work with had a daughter that needed an operation on her leg. After the operation, she was complaining of pain. A visit to the doc who did the operation...she was told the pain was normal and would ease off.

It didn't, so a visit to a different doc was planned. The second doc took x-rays..... they saw a medical clamp had been sewed up inside her leg. They removed it and she recovered nicely.

LAWSUIT.

The suit never went to court. Malpractice insurance offed a tidy sum, and everyone went on their way. He was prohibited from discussing the details in the settlement.

I agree.... I wanted it to go to court for that very reason.

The feeling I got from the 2 lawyers was a "I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine" sort of thing.  I think also they were taking the path of least resistance knowing the insurance co would pay at their advice, they would get their paycheck quickly for services rendered, and everyone would go on to the next thing happy and content.

Since I did not have the right to say "take it to court" they arranged a settlement. They played both sides..... telling me, I didn't want to risk going to court and him getting a sympathetic jury, and they were telling the other side...who, by the way, was asking for WAAAAAAAY more money for compensation, (they were asking for total financial discover on me, and my lawyer blocked that) that they "knew" the injuries were not accident related, and if it went to court they could very well walk out with nothing if the jury saw it from my point of view..... so they settled for the amounts which covered the chiropractor and hospital bills with a few dollars left over for them to spend as they saw fit.  

3% of gross.

As much as I sympathize with people, there are no guarantees in life.


If you spill hot coffee on yourself.... too bad, you should have known it was hot.
Fall on my sidewalk because you are drunk, too bad, next time stay sober and watch where you're going. 

The victim mentality and thinking you are entitled to compensation for your own stupidity at the expense of others.....

It also depends on where you live as to how much you'll get when you sue.

My mother fell on a handicap ramp that had ice on it while going in to the local bank. She could barely walk the rest of her life and was in constant pain because of the fall. She sued and was only awarded $8k. Her lawyer told her if the trial had been held a few counties over she would have got over $100k because the county we lived in historically paid the lowest amount allowed by law in cases like this.

Of course, when you sue a bank, they have deep pockets to hire better lawyers. When you get a lawyer that works off a percentage of what you will be awarded, and he knows you live in an area that historically doesn't award a lot of money in cases like this, it's hard to get a decent lawyer.